Researcher Honored with Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contribution

July 30, 2012

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – The University of New Mexico Department of Psychiatry is pleased to announce that Kathleen Y. Haaland, PhD, has been awarded the "Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Neuropsychology Award" by the National Academy of Neuropsychology

This award is given to a senior member of the Academy who has made significant scientific, intellectual, and training-related contributions to the field of neuropsychology. Neuropsychology specializes in the assessment and treatment of patients with brain injury or disease. Through research, neuropsychology also entails the development of models and methods for understanding normal and abnormal brain function.

“The brain has always fascinated me,” says Haaland, who began doing research in the early 1970s when there were few women in her field. Since that time, she has worked as both a clinician and a researcher, striving to understand how the different hemispheres of the human brain work independently in complex movement with the goal of helping stroke patients and others. Much of her work is conducted at the Raymond G. Murphy Veterans Administration Medical Center in Albuquerque. “I have always been a clinician doing neuropsychology with a strong interest in research, and I believe that my clinical work has ‘kept my feet on the ground.’”

Dr. Haaland joined the UNM Department of Psychiatry in 1990 and is now Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology and Vice Chair for Research. In addition to her interest in stroke patients, she has recently focused on the cognitive correlates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PSTD) and mild traumatic brain (TBI) injury. All of her research is geared to understanding the brain so that more effective and efficient methods of treatment can be developed for New Mexicans – and others – with brain injuries.